New Delhi: The CBI has decided to get blood samples of Harak Singh Rawat, the former Uttaranchal minister who had to resign after an Assamese woman accused him of fathering her child, reports our special correspondent.

The bureau will also collect samples from the woman, Indira Deori, alias Jenni, and her baby son.

Sources said the CBI would collect the samples soon — reportedly in Dehra Dun in the presence of a magistrate — to conduct a DNA test to identify the child’s father.

On the basis of Jenni’s statement, the CBI had registered a case against Rawat on the charge of establishing physical relations with her against her wishes. She had also claimed that Rawat was her baby’s father.

Sleuths on Thursday interrogated Rawat at the bureau’s Delhi headquarters, after an earlier session in his Dehra Dun home on August 6.

Rawat, confronted with the allegations Jenni had made in her statement to the CBI, denied the rape charge.

Legal experts said the bureau would find it difficult to prove the charge even if the DNA test confirmed Rawat as the child’s father. At best, the CBI might prove the two were physically involved, but that would not confirm rape, they said.

Another weak link is said to be the inordinate delay that Jenni made in making the allegations.

The bureau’s case appeared to hinge on Jenni’s statement, which, according to a Supreme Court ruling, is enough to nail the accused in a rape case, a criminal lawyer said.

On Thursday, Rawat was grilled on the fresh developments in the case.

An Uttaranchal government inquiry had found that Saroj, a woman cook at the state-run destitute women’s home where the unwed mother is lodged, had pressed Jenni to withdraw the case.

Saroj, who has now been removed from the home, had reportedly offered Jenni Rs 12 lakh as “compensatory money”. The bureau plans to question Saroj once it receives a copy of the state’s report.

Rawat had to quit the Congress government on June 18 following strident Opposition protests after Jenni told an Assembly committee that he had “fathered” her child. Chief minister .D. Tiwari had then ordered a CBI inquiry.

Rawat’s wife, who claims her husband is innocent, has sought the intervention of the President and the National Commission for Women.

Rawat himself has filed a defamation case against Jenni.

Stone hurled at Chandra Sekhar

Ghaziabad (PTI): Former Prime Minister Chandra Sekhar escaped unhurt on Friday when a stone was hurled at the window pane of the airconditioned compartment of the Magadh Express in which he was travelling, a senior police official said.

He was going to his Lok Sabha constituency Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.

Pak to free boy

New Delhi (PTI): Pakistan will soon work on freeing an Indian teenager who wandered across the Line of Control from the Jammu region two years ago. Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner to India Munawar Bhatti said his government will now work for the release of Ranjit Kumar after his Indian nationality was confirmed this year.

Students missing

Bangalore (PTI): Seven students in the age group of 8-13 were reported missing from Bangalore since Thursday, police sources said. The six girls and a boy had left their homes for school but have since been missing. A team formed to trace them has left for Chennai, the sources said.

Magistrate suicide

Surat (PTI): A judicial magistrate in Navsari town in the district allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at the judges’ quarters on Friday, police said. Shaukat Hussain Noor Mohammed Sheikh, 47, is said to have been suffering from depression.

Bomb in court

Lucknow (PTI): An unidentified person threw a crude bomb at the district court compound in Azamgarh on Friday, injuring a clerk, police sources said. The injured has been identified as Ashish Asthana. Police said prima facie it appeared to be a case of personal enmity.

Chappal attack

Ajmer (PTI): An accused threw a chappal at the judicial magistrate during hearing of a theft case against him on Thursday. Judicial magistrate Yogesh Sharma had convicted the accused to three-year imprisonment two days ago in another theft case.

The coir board has entrusted Bhabha Atomic Research Centre with carrying out a research on coir pith, which has a high degree of absorption and attracts nuclear waste vibration, a top board official said in Coimbatore.